“The Black Cat” (1843) by Edgar Allan Poe

Lecture Notes:

“There is a profound difference between what appears to be and what is; and if you believe otherwise, the Gothicist has a surprise for you. The strained, sunny smile of the Enlightenment- "All that is, is holy;" "Man is a rational being"- is confronted by the Gothicist, who, quite frankly, considering the history and prehistory of our species, knows better.” (Joyce Carol Oates)

Romanticism

Poetry is the true tool of the philosopher. It alone can penetrate the depths of the human psyche. Neither rational analysis nor geometric calculation will help you explain the narrator of “The Black Cat”.

The Short Story genre: (a phenomenon of the Romantic age)

A deft, intense depiction of a single dramatic action. In an flash the whole universe is unveiled.

“The Black Cat” appeared first in Graham’s Magazine, a publication with a mass market circulation.

The First Person Subjective Narrator:

Poe discovers how useful this literary tool is to provide the elaborate and articulate surface of this story with a rich, suggestive and ultimately terrifying sub-text.

We are limited to the point of view of someone who might be untruthful for a variety of reasons

Piecing together the truth requires an imaginative detective who sifts all the information skeptically and searches for slips, omissions or deliberate distortions which might reveal the truth. Look for misplaced emphasis or unusual diction.

The unreliable narrator may be:

Openly lying

Deliberately omitting important information

Distorting the truth

There may be evidence that he is repressing the truth.

The unreliable narrator may be hallucinating, existing in a totally different reality.

Creative Writing ala Poe

Write a story using the first person unreliable narrator and the Poe Vocabulary list. Create a diabolical character who, like Poe’s narrator, faces judgment and is taking this opportunity to tell his side of the story.

Poe Vocabulary:

homely

solicit

succinct

baroque

docile

sagacity

gossamer

congenial

procure

tincture

debauch

equivocal

perverse

conflagration

atrocity

bas-relief

apparition

stupefy

evince

odious
pestilence

pertinacity

incarnate

incumbent

demoniacal

anomaly

chimaera